The Takeover

Khan

Good night was what I told myself at least.

The first nightmare I had had developed within the first hour of me being asleep and it was literally as if my mind acted upon Cayne's worry about the explosions in the Everfree Forest. I dreamed I was falling. It was one of those things that pulls you back into the conscious world within a split second. There was a massive flash of light and then I was falling and my wings weren't working. I fell to the earth and woke with a start.

After finally forcing myself back to sleep, the dream continued with the same intensity as before only this time, I was already grounded. I was laying on my side with Nova standing in front of me. She was covered in soot from which I guess came from the explosion. I saw the wreckage of our private air liner not too far from me. Debris covered the ground around us and random fires painted the wreckage and the nearby trees. When I looked back at Nova she was screaming at me and trying to help me up. My hearing was finally coming to when I heard her yell, "Get up! They will be here any moment!"

"Who is they?" I commented with a slur. She completely ignored my comment and helped me wobble along through the brambles. That's when she got hit by a bolt of light. She flew back through the air and slammed into a tree upside down, and sliding down it and landing on her head before finally stopping.

"Nova!" I yelled, running towards her limp body as fast as my blurring vision would allow without falling. The forest floor was wet and soggy against my hooves.

A few more streaks of light buzzed past me as I quickly grabbed her from behind and rapped my forelegs under her arms to drag her behind the towering red barked tree that she had slammed into. I was being careful not to step on her wings because Celestia knows that is a painful ordeal. When I looked down to check my steps however, something was missing. Something Nova was missing. She didn't have any wings! What the hell?!

When I finally dragged her behind the tree, I started to turn her over unto her stomach to see what happened to her wings. Did they get torn off? I finished rolling her over but there was nothing there. There was literally nothing there, except for a few long scratches running down her back. Her wings were just...gone.

I rolled her back over onto her back to look at her again. Oh man, she is going to be pissed when she finds out she doesn't have her wings! I held her head against my chest and put my hoof to her neck to see if she still had a pulse which, now that I think about it, should have been the first thing I did. I felt the faint pulse under my hoof. Thank Celestia she's still alive. I held her head close to me.

I heard a thud against the forest floor, dirt kicking up from the ground to our right. My head jerked to the side to see what it was. It was a...well, I don't know what it was actually. It was shaped like a mix of a rectangle and an oval and was bright orange. I saw little red light illuminate the ground to the side of it and a loud beep sounded from it. Then it started beaping faster and...It exploded.

The explosion caused me to wake with a start, again. My coat was glued to my body from the amount of sweat that had formed on me. I could feel the adrenaline and the urgency of the situation still my dream had put me in. The adrenaline started to fade away leaving me with a light sickness in my belly. I got up from my bed and walked to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.

I looked as if I had not slept at all. "Luna, leave me alone with these nightmares," I said aloud to the empty hotel room. I grabbed a towel from the towel rack above the toilet and put it under the sink and wet the middle of it. I walked out of the bathroom and threw the towel on my face and held it there, letting the cool water sooth the heat of my face. I got back in bed and laid there for a while, at least 30 minutes before I finally started to nod off.

It would have been nice to go back to sleep, besides the fact I was thrown back into the nightmare that had interrupted my effort of sleep for the third time tonight. I was back where I had been, Nova still unconsciously laying against my chest. The only thing that had changed now was my coat was sticky with what looked like...orange paint? It was all over the place. On the ground around the device that had been thrown over to where we were hiding had opened up and there was a puddle of the orange liquid all around it. It was a bomb type thing, filled with paint. I tried to wipe some of it off of me, but as I did more beams of light that were all a different color started hitting the tree bark near me and the peppered the ground around me. Then Nova began to stir.

"Nova?" I asked questioningly. "Nova can you hear me?"

"Khan? What happe-," a sound of deep bass started to overcome assaulted my ears and the sound of shattering wood took the place of Nova's voice and I was peppered with bark and chips of wood. I ducked down really fast but hit my head on something and lurched back and fell over holding my forehead, my vision blurred at the sides. I sat up and saw Nova standing up over me in an unusual stance. She was looking down at me, directly in the eyes. I said, "I'm glad your feeling alright. Can you help me up now?" She didn't say anything but she stuck a hoof out. I grabbed and halfway hoisted myself up. Then I saw her hoof swing around and pain erupted through my jaw and I fell back down.

"Nova, what the hell was that for?!" I yelled at her as I wiped a hoof against my lip. I looked up back at her and she had a horn. Nova's not a unicorn! She was walking towards me and she got on top of me. Hovering over me I was going to say something to her, but my words evaporated before they left my mouth. Her eyes. They were still the original pink color but her pupils...they were completely hexagonal. Her pupils were a thousand little black hexagons. "What the fu-"

WAM!

My head lurched to the side as pain gripped the entire left side of my face. Along with the lasting sting my hearing was completely gone in my left ear. I could feel a thick, warm liquid trailing down my face as I looked up to see the source of the casualty. Nova was hovering a piece of solid wood above her head, her horn alight with a midnight black glow. I couldn't even say anything for the entire left side of my head was numb. She came down with the board again, my head being slung around to the other side. My entire head was now numb and my face wasn't excluded from the feeling. Nova hovered the board over to the side of my face, using it to coax my head to roll back to where I was facing her again. Her face was completely void of emotion. Nothing that indicated that she was still there. Then I saw as her horn grew a little lighter and looked down in time for the board to connect entirely with my face. My head sunk farther into the wet forest floor. A muffled voice slid into my thoughts as the board came down again in a relentless barrage of beatings, bone against wood.

"Khan."

The voice said my name! I couldn't say anything back however. I was stuck. The only part of me that was working was inside my head.

Then the voice returned, louder this time and more urgent. "Khan!"

That's when my eyes flew open and the sound of the wood slamming into my skull faded into desperate knocks at the hotel door.

I leaned my head up a little to look around and small pulse of pain formed in my forehead. I leaned all the way whilst rubbing my head with a hoof and noticed that I was on the floor. I had fallen off the bed and I guess I hit my head on the bedside table.

"Khan! Wake up or your ass is getting left in Manehatten!" I heard the fierce yet feminine voice of the doors' assailant. None other than the one who beat the living shit out of me my most recent nightmare. With dreams like that you'd think I was abused as a colt.

"I'm up! I'm up!" I called out loudly standing up and letting the sheets I had become entangled in fall to the floor. It's a good thing I packed before the show yesterday, I was ready to go. I went over to the mirror and straightened out my disheveled mane. I put all my things that were on the counter and brought it all to the door. Right before I opened the door I stopped and stretched my back and wings. Nothing like a good stretch to let out the inner porn star in you. I opened the door, where I found Nova and our manager standing there, leaning against the guard rails of the hotel's balcony.

"It's about time, sleepy head," Nova said. "We only have about 30 minutes to get to the air port."

"You look like shit," Smokey commented.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically, following up the reply with a yawn.

"Did you go to sleep at all last night?" Nova asked.

"Barely. I had three nightmares in a row."

"About what?"

"I'm not going to tell you that," I said with a smile. She knew it was something about her.

"Why not?" she looked at me and then at the movement I turned my head to look at her.

I chuckled. "Because you would like it too much." She would probably enjoy know that she was able to beat the hell out of me with a board without actually doing it.

"Uh huh," she replied, clearly not satisfied with the answer. We go to a flight of stairs and descended them into the open parking lot. As we got to about the middle of it, I saw a taxi wagon had stopped towards the front of the parking lot, overlooking the hyperactive street of Manehatten that lurked on the side.

When we got to it, I flew up and over Nova in one quick motion and opened the wagons door.

"Ladies first," I said to her. All she gave me was a small smile. Then I climbed in and sat next to her while Smokey got in last and sat across from us.

I felt the wagon start to move and within a moment we were on the street. I looked around, taking in the details of the interior of our cab. The walls were painted gold with delicate designs running through, the Equestrian Flag painted in the center of the designs. The ceiling was a detailed map of Manehatten in full color. There was a similar map against the front wall of the cab too. The seats were a royal red, with gold embroidering and an outline of purple. Smokey probably spent a shiny bit to get this.

"Okay guys," Smokey had started pulling out a manila folder from his backpack. Then he looked at Nova, "and gals," he continued. Nova put on a huge sarcastic smile, tilting her head to the side. "A pretty well known lyricist in Ponyville got in contact with me about giving you guys 3 full songs of lyrics to work with to add on to you next album. I wanted to make sure it was okay with you guys. These are a little softer pieces than what you are used to but she also said we can alter them if we want."

"I don't mind soft as long as they have good rhythm and meaning," I added in my thoughts.

"I love soft songs," Nova inputted. "I don't feel like we have enough soothing, soft rock songs."

Smokey then said, "Alright, I'm still going get you two to read over it and see what you think. I've already showed the others."

"Glad we know who's your favorites," I muttered.

"Can it wait until we get on the plane?" Nova said. "It's not like we won't have all day to do it."

Smokey quickly replied, "Oh sure, that's not a problem." He started to slide the folder back into his backpack but he stopped for a second to say, "If you'll actually do it."

"Lets not pretend like I won't."

I looked out one of the cab windows and watched the other taxi cabs and carriages go by. I saw a hot-dog stand on the corner up the street.

"Hey!" I head Smokey shout out the front window to whom I assume is the cab puller. "Hurry up will ya? We got a short schedule!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" The puller yelled back.

"That's donkey shit! You have wings! Fly boy, fly!"

Me and Nova looked at each other in silent agreement that our manager had officially lost his mind. I felt the cab start to lift off the ground and was shaking violently. I felt the cab lurch forward and as it smoothed out back into a comfortable ride, I looked out the front window and saw the pegasus struggling to pull the cab along gently.

I turned to Nova and told her, "I'm going to go help him. He seems to be having a hard time." I walked over to the door and opened it, the wind instantly hitting me, causing my mane to flow with it.

Right before I jumped out I heard Smokey say, "He's got it under control. I'm paying him to get us to the airport on time. If you are going to pull the cab, then what am I paying him for."

Hmmm...Needed something to say to that because he was right. Then I said with a straight face, "the cab."

I jumped out the door and started flapping my wings in a backward stroke motion to be able to close the door before turning around and flying towards the front where the second harness is. I went up to it and put it on. The cab flier looked over at me and shouted so he be heard over the wind, "What are you doing?"

I answered with a grunt, putting the harness of my head, "I'm helping you! Have you ever heard of that before?"

"Seriously?" He said, facing forward again. "No."

I chuckled at that. I grabbed the mouth piece on the strap of the harness and pulled it to where it was comfortably snug around me and we flew. Celestia only knows when the last time I flew was. I used to love to fly and do tricks but after starting a band with mostly unicorns as the ponies surrounding me I just got used to walking. I sure did miss it though. It felt good letting the cool morning air come in and out from beneath my wings and the wind ruffling my feathers. The wind flowing through my mane was an awesome feeling and I almost felt bad for earth ponies and unicorns because chances are they will never know what this feels like.

I love being a pegasus.

I was allowing the wind to enter and clear my mind of everything except one thing. Those nightmares I had last night. I don't know why it's bugging me so much. Maybe it's because I can remember it so vividly. Or maybe I don't like the idea of Nova taking a board to my face. Whatever it was, I shoved it into the back of my head to stop thinking about it, it was just a nightmare.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the airplane bound for Ponyville, 6PM

Nova

"Nova."

My eyes opened. "Present," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eye as I arched my back and straightened my wings to stretch. I moved one hoof from my just enough to see who had woke me. It was Smokey. Of course.

"Didn't mean to disturb you, but it's 6:30 and I need you to look over these lyrics before we get to Ponyville," he said.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back and groaned. I let my head roll to the side and I opened my eyes, Khan sitting across the isle, his head against the table and a hoof rapped around his head. I saw his back as it slowly went up and down with each breath.

I craned my head around my seat to look back at the others which were all asleep as well. I turned around and looked out the window, which was being pelted by rain.

"How close are we to Ponyville?" I asked lazily.

"About an hour and half out," he replied flopping the backpack onto the table in front of me. "Which is why I need you to look over these."

He pulled out the manila folder and opened it up and slid three documents out of it before closing once more.

"I'll look over them if you wake Khan up and get him to look at them, too." I am such a dick.

"I would but he looked over them as soon as he got done coaxing Cayne onto the flight," Smokey said back in his professional manager voice.

"Damn," I muttered under my breath. I am so tired. Maybe it's the rain that's causing my drowsiness. "Alright I'll do it."

"Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go use the little colts' room."

"Oh I bet you do," I retorted.

I watched him for a minute as he walked slowly to the back of the plane before returning my attention to the papers that sat in front of me. Instead of reading them, I drifted off into my own thoughts. Thoughts about how far we had come as a group, to the point we are at now. We were now a top 25 band. We had lyricists sending us their music for us to play, we had our first sold out show, we've put out six albums. Not many ponies get to say they've done all that and there is still so much more we could do. We always told ourselves we were going to the top whether the world liked it or not. And sure enough, here we are. It was a lot of comfort knowing that we had accomplished so much.

The plane started shaking rapidly, the papers falling to the floor. Then it stopped. Static took over the intercom and was interrupted as voice took its place, "This is your pilot speaking, we just ran into a little bit of turbulence. Nothing to be worried ab-"

The entire plane shook again but much more violently this time. I looked outside but I couldn't see anything for the rain and fog. Then suddenly I was lurched forward and thrown over the table and hit the floor, rolling to a stop on my back. What is going on? I looked up toward the back of the plane where everyone else was. Khan had woken up and was on top of the table he was previously laying his head down on. Griel and Stone had woken up also, stepping out into the isle to see what was going on. Luggage had flown everywhere.

"Nova, do you know what's going on?" Khan said urgently, while I was standing up, already completely awake and in full concentration mode.

I looked down the isle towards the cock pit and while shaking my head, replied, "I have no clue. I was about to read over those lyrics that Smokey gave me and I was thrown out of my seat."

Griel asked, "Where is Smokey?"

"He said he was "going to use the little colts' room," I replied. I walked down the isle of the plane towards the cockpit. I took a peek out the window again. It was still raining just like before. There was something off about the picture though. I stopped in the isle and went in between some seats to get against the window. The color of the sky was different. It was a blackish color instead of the lighter gray that it was earlier, when I had first looked out the window.

My head snapped around to look down the isle towards the cockpit as a muffled shriek came from that end of the plane. I saw Khan and Stone running for the front, Griel yelling after them, "I'm gunna go find Smokey and Cayne!" before he took off running the opposite direction. I followed Khan and Stone to the front. I quickly caught up because they slowed down to a stop at the cockpit door. Stone pounded against the door, yelling loud enough to be heard through it, "Hey guys, are you alright in there?"

No reply.

I looked out the nearest window, the black tint that had taken over the sky was still there. Something else was different about it now however. As I looked closer, I saw that the rain wasn't coming in at an angle anymore. It was falling in a straight line. I went over to the door and twisted the handle and pressed a fat red button that was protected by a plastic cover. The door cracked just a little bit. I felt no wind coming in to the plane and the door didn't swing open or even get pulled off like it normally would have. "Guys, come take a look at this." I open the door all the way. It was as if the plane was stuck in time.

Khan caught on pretty quickly. "What the hell?"

The only words that Stone could must was, "Whoa."

"Are we not moving at all?" Khan asked. I nodded to confirm his observation. The rain was falling in a straight line, meaning we were very high up and not moving at all.

"Why is it so dark?" Stone asked fearfully.

"Beats me," I said.

"Me too, it's only like six, it shouldn't be this dark outside," Khan chimed in.

"You two go find the others," I told them. "I'm going to fly around to the cockpit window and see what I can see." I saw them hurry off towards the back of the plane. While I flew along the side of the massive jet towards the front, I tried to formulate what could be going on. I was rounding the side of the nose of the plane when I spotted the broken windows of the cockpit. I slowly flew up to the window and what I saw...I think I'm going to be sick.

I put a hoof over my mouth and voiced quietly, "Celestia have mercy." That's all I could say. The pilot was still in the pilots' seat, his white suit completely soaked in blood. The wall behind him was covered in blood; it had begun to pool at the bottom. There was a metal rod going through his left eye and going all the way through the seat, the rod pinning him to it. I got as close as I would allow myself to get to the gruesome scene and noticed that the rod he had in his eye was actually the door handle from the cockpit door. The co-pilot was nowhere to be found. I poked my head through the window to look around some more. There was a small splatter of blood against the back of the cloth co-pilot seat. The co-pilot was not in the plane. The blood on the floor trailed towards the controls and it was smeared up the panels of various buttons and switches. The trail had continued out the broken windows and down the side of the plane's nose.

I pulled back from the planes windows and just stared in. My heart was heavy with the loss of life that I'm witnessing the aftermath of. I looked down and closed my eyes, hugging myself, the rain now having completely soaked my mane. I heard a hoof on metal sound and I looked up to see Khan standing on top of the plane above the cockpit, his mane likewise stuck to his face.

"Nova, we found Smokey and Cayne-," he paused for a second. "What's wrong?"

I didn't say anything. I only pointed my hoof towards the grim scene. Khan flew slowly over to where I was hovering, so he could see what I've seen. It only took a second for it to register with him, the grisly scene bringing his reaction out of him immediately. He flew over to me, "Oh Nova," was all he said before he wrapped his hooves around me in a gentle embrace. I returned the gesture, my first tear trickling down my face, mixing with the rain. I buried my head in his chest, using him as a shield from what was on the other side of him.

"Hey, we need to get back inside the plane, the others are probably getting worried about you." I nodded and we made slow flight back to the plane's door.

"Why would they be worried about me?" I asked. With what has happened in the cockpit they shouldn't be worried about me.

"Well, the sky is darker than normal, not even a storm type of dark and they are all in a plane that is at a complete standstill, suspended thousands of feet in the air." He looked over to me before continuing, "And they can't fly."

We continued in silence for the duration of our flight back to the door. When we got there we both landed simultaneously, we saw the others standing in a circle.

Cayne was the first to say something, "Did you two find anything?"

I looked over at Khan who replied, "The pilot is dead and the co-pilot is M.I.A." This information earned a few gasps. I noticed Cayne's eyes were taking nervous glances from Khan to the open door of the jet. I turned around and pulled the door closed, re-locking it.

Smokey then voiced the question that was on everyponys' mind, "So, what are we going to do?"

Khan replied to this question also, "I noticed when I peaked into the cockpit that all of the devices were still on, including the engines. So if we can figure out what is keeping us from going anywhere, then we might be able to stop it from doing so." He looked around at all of us. "Any ideas?"

Griel quickly said, "Nope."

"Well we've got to do something," I said. "We can't just sit here."

We got a swift reply however. There was a flash of light from outside, it pouring through the jets windows and blinding me and everypony else. I regained my sight and quickly looked around at the others. My sight was still blurry but I could see now that they were all starting to recover too. The floor beneath our hooves began to shake and the plane lurched forward, sending me, our manager, and my band members soaring through the air, tumbling towards the back. We were slamming into the ceiling, luggage, chairs, and anything else that decided to throw in a punch. I got caught in between two seats, my head slamming into the windoe about half way back through the plane. I was seeing three of everything and was starting ti get motion sickness. I took a few deep breaths and I realized something. We were all going to die.

I looked back to see what was happening with the others and I saw Khan flying full speed up the isle, him yelling to me through the chaos, "Nova! Get to the plane door and open it! The plane is going down! Get to the cockpit and see what you can do!"

"Are you crazy?! I don't know how to fly a plane!" I yelled back to him.

"I know you don't but it's our best chance! I've got to go help Griel, Stone and Smokey!"

He was about to fly back up the plane and I grabbed his hoof before he got too far away, "What about Cayne?"

He looked back at me and didn't say anything. He gave me a look that hurt me because of how much it hurt him and I understood. He just slowly moved his head side to side. Cayne didn't make it.

I spread my wings in the isle, moving up through the isle as fast as my wings would let me. I used the seats as ladder of sorts to help pull myself against the wind. I arrived upon the door and I could feel it trying to pull me towards it. I tried to move up to it slowly but that plan was useless. My hooves slipped out from under me on the first step and I was hurtled into the door at breakneck speed. I clipped my wing on the door frame and was forcefully ejected from the plane. I did several front flips before forcing myself to stop and righting myself while grabbing my head to keep my world from spinning.

There is no greater pain than hurting your wings. None. Mine hurt alot , enough to bring a tear to my eye. But I was hovering which means it still worked regardless of how much it hurt.

What am I doing? I have no time to waste. I dropped down, flapping my wings full bore towards the plane. I fought through the rain and the wind and I was catching up to the plane's tail. It was tilted to the right and going down diagonally. I caught up to the plane and flew along side it, slowly but steadily catching up to the front.

At long last, I made it and pulled myself inside. "Gah shit," I said, completely forgetting about the pilot. I don't have time for that. I looked through the controls, and found the switch that converted the controls to the co-pilot. I sat down, making sure not to put my back against the seat to keep blood from getting on my coat but when I looked down at the controls it was obvious that no matter what I did, this was going to be messy. The rain was pouring in through the broken windows and the wind blowing back my mane. I grabbed hold of one of the sticks and pulled up on it as hard as I could. We were starting to level out. But as soon as I was about have a victory shout, I heard an explosion come from behind me and the plane began to shake even more rapidly that before. Now the plane was spinning in a full spiral towards the earth at full speed.

Oh shit.

I pulled at the controls desperately, trying to find any way to right the plane. A red light came on the ceiling and started flashing, a screen in the middle illuminating the cockpit in a green glow. A diagram of the plane was displayed on the screen and the right engine was flashing red and the bottom of the screen red "Engine Failure". That was going to make things significantly harder to straighten out the plane. I started to pull the stick back and the left to account for the missing engine. I heard a loud high pitched groan and the plane started to make a move towards leveling out. Now I was being faced with another problem.

The ground was getting closer. I could see the Everfree Forest and it was getting closer by the second. I looked at the altimeter and it read 2000 feet and descending. I was leveling the plane out the best I could but it wasn't going to be enough. I was about to give up when a chord of sadness stroked the strings of heart, my conscience. All of my friend were in the back of this plane. Everyone I cared about, everyone I had left. For that, I'll keep trying.

I flipped on every switch I could, if I thought it would help even a little, that button was mashed. I kept pulling the stick towards me, as far as the frame that held it would let me go. The plane shaking constantly, the tremors bouncing me to the edge of my seat. A loud pop came from behind me and a metal on metal grind that signified something bad was happening. The entire cockpit was now layered with a green and red glow, the monitor showing me that the left engine had failed. The altimeter hit 1000 feet and started flashing its warning. I felt the plane starting to go down into its own nosedive again. I kept pulling back and I could see the plane going back up ever so slightly. Then another sound came from outside and behind me and it was a much louder metal on metal grind that sent chills up my back. I heard another loud popping sound. We were about to be in the tree tops of the Everfree. The altimeter read 150 feet...100...

Then I jumped out of the cock pit to the right side and I gave my wings a few hard beats to stabilize myself in the air. I watched in horror as the plane went down to the ground. I felt like time had slowed, to make me watch every terrorizing second of my failed attempt. I saw as the plane hit the treetops and later the ground. The left wing was the first thing touch the ground and it carved a line into the trees and upon impact of the ground, caved in on itself. All I could do is watch. As the plane touched the ground, I saw something dart out of the side of the plane right as the plane exploded and the area surrounding it was engulfed in flames. The flames with the force of the explosion had caught up to the figure and engulfed it but still the figure came through the flames too and landed about 30 yards from the plane.

Was that...Khan?